TEAM Zarate Tarrani Notes From the Field

A Shotgun Wedding. In Linda's Postcards from the Revolution entry earlier today she mentioned ebXML. I agree with her that ebXML is an important consideration for electronic commerce architectures, but have a concern that this emerging standard is not coming from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Instead it's a standard that is sponsored by Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT).

A JavaWorld article titled ebXML: Not just another acronym sums up ebXML and the apparent disconnect between the W3C and OASIS. This disconnect is not a rivalry or competing effort. It's based on the fact that the W3C is not directly involved in an area that, in my opinion, should have their involvement. I have another opinion about this: there is an inevitable marriage between OASIS and W3C with respect to ebXML, hence, my theme:

Something Old. ebXML roots in XML can be clearly seen in Robin Cover's 29 January 2002 piece titled Electronic Business XML Initiative.

Something New. If ebXML is a new term to you read Romin Irani's 11 July 2001 article titled An Introduction to ebXML (Collaborative Electronic Business is here to stay), and also go to the source: OASIS. If you've been following my entries on security in Postcards from the Revolution, then you'll certainly want to examine the XML-Based Security Page on the OASIS site.

Something Borrowed. The open source folks have initiated Open ebXML projects and an Open ebXML Laboratory.

Something Blue. When IBM gets into the picture you begin to take things seriously. Big Blue's XML Zone has a well-written article from June 2001 titled Understanding ebXML Untangling the business Web of the future that fully describes ebXML.

... and a silver sixpence in her shoe. Welcome back Linda!